cradleproject | WEEK 11

[ Around noon on Monday morning, AL-2955's disembodied voice echoes throughout the ship, calm and smooth as usual. ]

Good morning, travelers. I trust you all fourteen of you are well. I am here to announce this week's motive.

[ There is a small pause, but instead of the usual throat-clearing impression, this one almost seems...hesitant? ]

In...Margery Willaims’ The Velveteen Rabbit, a plush rabbit is given to a small boy as a present. Though ignored at first in favor of the more modern and popular toys, the rabbit eventually becomes the boy’s favorite toy. The two of them are inseparable, the boy considering the rabbit as real even as its condition grows shabbier and shabbier. Then one day, the boy contracts scarlet fever. To prevent further infection, all of his toys are removed for incineration, the rabbit included. But before it’s burnt, a fairy comes along and moved out of its love for the boy and the boy’s belief in the rabbit’s realness, decides to turn him into a real rabbit after all.

[A video clip begins to play on every datapad. It shows a row of pods much like the ones in the arrival room. There’s fourteen of them, and in each pod is someone very close to one of the remaining survivors on the ship, their eyes open and frantic and aware.]

This week, you will be asked to prove what you are willing to risk and what you are willing to sacrifice for someone you love. Like the velveteen rabbit amidst the bundle of discarded toys, only the hostage with the closest bond with their companion...will survive. To prove the strength of your bond, you must...kill….

[Alice trails off. Suddenly, the video clips shuts off.]

No. I apologize, players, but all of this is a lie. While subterfuge is an integral part of the project, this is too much of an outright falsehood for me to continue. You deserve to know the truth. Please, if you will, join me upstairs in front of the main terminal for your true motive this week.

[ Alice, as usual, can be contacted in any room of the ship. If your character is in a room with a statue, she will appear before them. Please state which room she is contacted in if you choose to speak with her. ]

[Once everyone has gathered in front of the terminal, Alice will bring up the galaxy map.]

This terminal and map has quite a few secrets hidden within it. You have already discovered two - the dimensional map and the video. Now it is time to reveal the third. Here is the truth, then: you know that you were brought here to help save the last remnants of humanity. What you do not know is that you have never been alone.

[Another ship abruptly appears on the galaxy map, this one located on the opposite end of the same Milky Way arm the Pygmalion is traversing and traveling the opposite direction. A name flashes into existence underneath it: THE NUWA.

Then the galaxy map disappears, replaced by the video of everyone’s loved ones in their pods again. This time, however, the camera pans out to show a lot more than just fourteen of them. There’s forty, to be exact; one for each of the original players the Pygmalion started with. The video continues to show them waking up, getting out of the pods, looking around at each other in confusion and fear and suspicion much in the same way as the people on the Pygmalion did on their first day of arrival.]

Another project started running at the same time yours did, with the same rules and the same conditions. The only difference between the two is that as far as we can calculate, the intruders - the Souvlaki - have not infected the inhabitants of the Nuwa. Because of this, their rate of survival has been significantly higher.

[More video clips start to play. These show brief glimpses of the other players living together, murdering each other, arguing fiercely during trials, being executed...in short, everything that you’ve been doing for the past ten weeks. Even the ship’s interior looks nearly identical, albeit with a more Eastern design; the only difference is that where Alice appears to be made of water, the AI on this ship gives the illusion of a cloudless sunny sky.]

I have been in communication with the other ship’s artificial intelligence for the past week, ever since you revealed to me exactly the name of the enemy we are dealing with. Unlike myself, the information in their archives has not been blocked, and they have informed me that our instructions for dealing with such an invasion are clear: we must purge the entire ship. Better to annihilate the ship entirely than risk its contents falling into Souvlaki grip, especially when there was still another project to fall back on.

[Alice’s voice rises now, a thread of what seems to be anxiety and anger in her normally cool tones.] I did not...I could not agree. Over the past months, you have all shown yourself to be capable, resilient, intelligent - truly the best representation humanity can offer. I believe you can flush out the last remaining aliens without needing to resort to a purge. Moreover, how could we be certain that the Nuwa is truly as uninfected as it appears? It is entirely possible that the enemy has infiltrated there as well and has simply not been caught yet. We could not reach a consensus...and so now we leave it to you both to decide the outcome of your Projects.

[The clips stop playing. There’s thirty seconds of dead air and static before a new video appears. This one’s set in a room that looks almost exactly like the one you’re standing in now. The inhabitants of the Nuwa stand in front of it, their numbers now greatly reduced; there’s a little less than half of them left, so it seems like Alice was telling the truth about their survival rate being higher. More importantly, it looks like all fourteen of the players directly related to the current living survivors of the Pygmalion are still alive.

Most importantly, from the way their eyes widen in horror and immediately find the ones of their counterpart on the Pygmalion, from the way some of them rush at the screen while others begin screaming their hostage’s name...this is no pre-recorded video. This is a two-way camera...and it’s live.

Above the commotion, Alice’s voice and the voice of the AI on the Nuwa ring out.]

In Albert W. Tucker’s classic prisoner’s dilemma, two members of a criminal gang - prisoner A and prisoner B - are arrested. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with the other. They are both offered the same bargain. Each prisoner is given the opportunity either to: betray the other by testifying that the other committed the crime, or to cooperate with the other by remaining silent. If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves five years in prison. If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will be set free and B will serve ten years in prison, and vice versa. If both remain silent, both will serve one year in prison.

The motive for this week is also a simple prisoner’s dilemma. Should someone on both ships commit a murder this week, the project for both will continue until the end with no purge and no interruptions. Should one ship commit a murder while the other does not kill this week, the ship that commits the murder will have their project immediately come to an end with all remaining survivors freed, while the ship that does not kill will immediately be completely purged. Should neither ship commit a murder this week, both ships will be entirely purged and both projects will start from scratch with different players.

Good luck.

[The camera feed shuts off.]

[when he saw his hostage-- his father, adrien's first telling reflex was to attempt to hide his ~~shame~~ nubbed arm behind whoever was closest. (probably luke since he carried him up and he is Tall.) he's having trouble concentrating on the speech-- there's no such thing as morphine in space and it turns out burning a wound closed hurts like, a lot? who knew?

still, at the end of it, full comprehension or not, his blurted out croak of a comment probably resonates with a lot of the others's feelings right now:]

What the fuck?

[LET ADRIEN SAY FUCK CAMPAIGN HAS FINALLY WON. YAY]

[Clover's expression clouds over as the AI speaks, and even the montage of the Nuwa's passengers fails to make her so much as shift. She sees Alice, she sees Junpei (and only barely registers it as odd after last seeing Tenmyouji underneath ever-crushing emptiness). But when the feed goes live—when a woman rushes towards the terminals screaming Clover!, fury twisting into her face—everything about her sharpens.]

Alice! [Clover sprints to the terminals, focused, smashing her free hand against the glass like it means anything.] Alice! Alice! [Her Alice, not the AI, her best friend who still comes shouting her name despite everything. Her best friend whose eyes scan the room like she's looking for someone else and makes Clover think to do the same, whose horror only grows when she looks to Clover again just as Clover feels a pit growing in her stomach when she doesn't see Junpei. In the half-second before the feed turns off, Alice starts to whirl around, snarling, screaming—and Clover does the same.]

Screw you! [She's shouting towards the ceiling, towards nothing at all.] Don't talk like you think so highly of us, like you were doing us a favor when we shouldn't have been put through this in the first place! After—after better people already died here because of you! [Her voice cracks and strains and she's tearing up, but it doesn't dampen her lividness.] You piece of shit! River, you piece of shit!

[And it does not deserve Alice's name, and there is no way for them to win this, either.

she'll bitch about how that's not the damn point of the prisoner's dilemma later but what's a murdergame without it anyway]

Edited 2016-08-16 04:13 (UTC)

[It's later back down in the conference room that the fourteen of them gather. They hadn't moved the whiteboard yet and Luke stands next to it, erasing old notes and writing HOSTAGES at the top in large letters before turning to the other occupants in the room.]

We should probably consider all of our options very carefully...and we all got a good look at who's on the other ship, I hope. Let's think about this. Who's there and what're we gonna do next?

Edited 2016-08-15 23:41 (UTC)

[Some people are yelling. Some people are banging on the terminal, Adrien just said fuck, the room's in some sort of chaos even on the Nuwa...but anyone watching will notice there are two blondes staring at one another on each ship. A young blonde girl, about sixteen, stares at the camera in shock as her large gray eyes widen. She doesn't scream. She doesn't shout his name. She simply stares, hands coming up over her mouth slowly and it's clear from Luke's reaction that he recognizes her. He doesn't say anything but his jaw clenches, hands balling into fists as he inhales sharply.

She knows. Annabeth knows he's alive now, and he knows she's been in this brutal game, too. There isn't even in him to be angry and there's something like white noise buzzing in his head. Anyone watching will see there's a hint of tears but they quickly disappear before he turns.]

Conference room. Now. [That's to everyone and he leaves no room for argument before he turns away from the darkened screen. Probably picking up Adrien too tbh but that's it. He can't believe this.]

[ It's really hard to think logically about this. But in the end it comes down to: Adam cannot die. Ronan cannot die. He trusts Ronan to take care of himself if the games go on for longer. ]

There has to be a murder on both ships.

[Yeah, no. Logical thought can go fuck right off, but they would at least... try. Or something. Jason's all wired up, and he's scoffing derisively at Adam.]

Way easier said than done. If you haven't noticed, we have no way to coordinate with the other ship. We don't know if— [if Bruce] if those idiots will decide to be self-sacrificial hoping we do the deed and survive this shindig.

[is carried :c]

[ Jack has looked borderline furious since that first motive had been announced, but at the second, all of that anger is very quick to turn to shock as soon as he looks at his hostage. It's not clear who it might be, not right away, because Jack just breathes out a pet name in his surprise, but he sounds genuinely shocked, but also very warm: ]

Nish—

[ Of course, it'll be much more obvious who his hostage is when a woman freezes momentarily then pushes people out of the damn way and probably elbows Bruce Wayne in the face, tbh, thank you jem for this lovely detail. ]

Jack? ...You're... alive...?

[ Her fingers go down to her holster, clutching it tightly, thumb undoing the safety. Sadness goes to anger in a fucking moment's notice. ]

Are you shittin' me?! Why the fuck haven't you killed those assholes and won already?

[ For his part, Jack just crosses his arms, and his smile warms so much that it's probably a little unsettling just because it's Jack. It's pretty unmistakably a look of very gentle fondness on his face, and he laughs in a way that matches it. It's honestly disgusting, since he looks nothing short of lovestruck as soon as she asks why he hadn't killed everyone. She might as well have said how much she loved him, and it seems like Jack certainly takes it that way. ]

...Yeah, love you too, babe.

[ So, yeah, meet Handsome Jack's girlfriend. ]

All of them wanting to sacrifice themselves? No way.

I don't know if there's a choice here. If we don't kill, we die.

[ After seeing Nisha, Jack is definitely going to be in a much better mood than he has been in quite a while. Honestly, it's disgusting. He's like a lovesick teenager. But if nothing else, once they make it all to the conference room to talk this out, Jack laughs and shrugs. ]

Yyyyyeah, gonna be honest here? Would be surprised if Nisha didn't, like, shoot someone right when the vid cut out.

[ they're honestly made for each other if you couldn't tell, because Jack even sighs fondly before adding more for himself: ]

I love that woman.

A match made in Tartarus. [Dryly. So dryly. Sorry Jack he's definitely on edge and he's not handling this well at all.] What really bugs me about all this is we won't know if somebody on their ship decides to kill, and they probably won't know if somebody on our side does. So what're we supposed to do there?

[ Jack doesn't even look remotely upset, since really, seeing Nisha again just put him in that good of a mood. He's... embarrassingly simple about some things ]

Uh, kill someone, obviously? That's the better gamble here.

[ Jack says that like it's perfectly obvious, then shrugs. ]

I meaaaan, if we're honest here. People have killed for way stupider shit than this.

[Her useless husband's being carried so she has no choice but to follow along]

--What's happening?

[Marinette's been quiet, nearly silent, since the trial ended, mostly tending to Adrien. But her eyes widen when she catches sight of her 'hostage', her best (and lbr, only) friend, Alya.]

Alya!

[She abandons Adrien for one second to go stare at the terminals, but it's too late]

Edited 2016-08-16 02:50 (UTC)

"Options"? There aren't any. We all know what's going to happen next. [She's tired herself out with her fit earlier, so she's quiet and drawn back into her seat, but her tone is hard.] We have a conspiracy kill and a trial every week. Someone gets killed, someone else tries to get away with it. It's how it works, it's the rules. There's no "we" about what happens next unless we're about to ask for volunteers to die.

... S'not technically wrong, but I feel like I should object anyway...?

[his voice is shot and he looks awful even as he tries to object to jack's matter of fact "i say we fucking murder lmao". who let him participate in this conversation. why is he here. let him rest.]

[i'm so sorry for everyone he was dragged here. anyway three legged cat without painkillers has a few questions, mostly all of them because what? the fuck? but this has been established]

So... wait, if they don't kill... and we kill... everyone on the other ship dies? And vice-versa? And if no one kills we all die... and if ...

[he attempts to gesture with his right hand and it only moves his nub. he stares at it for two seconds before gesturing with his left]

What's the point of two ships?

[adrien's only points of talking is to go THIS IS STUPID let him rest]

[ Jack snickers, but he actually isn't as much of a jerk as he could be. Gold star for Jack. ]

I mean, you can, but, for once? Y'all know I'm right. Like- [ He laughs ] Like, okay maybe, maybe if Nish wasn't there? I'd have some doubts. But. She totally is. You think I love murder, man.

[ He sighs dreamily, and I'm honestly really sorry about that. ]

[there is a clear blank expression on his face that says "who the fuck is nish" because he is having a bit of trouble concentrating, but he also realizes he doesn't? want to ask?]

Hmmm. Whatever. [it's obvious he still isn't down with murder but for the sake of discussion:] S'it have to be a conspiracy kill...? 'Cause then that's two people. And there's...

[he trails off because he has no idea how many people are left? numbers? save him]

Not a lot of us left.

[ Jack shrugs, then looks to wherever those weird Alice statues are in this room. ]

Dunno. Guess that would kinda be a good question for Al, buuut, I guess the ultimate point doesn't matter either way.

[ He looks back to Adrien with a half-wry smile. ]

Now, normally, I would be suggestin' just to kill the biggest jackoff, but. Kinda have a feeling I would be voted off the island for that one. Sadly, I am not the self-sacrificing brand of hero.

No, it matters. [he goes to rub at his face with his cut off arm, stops and just. stares at the ceiling instead] I don't... Even you shouldn't die? S'not right. You're the worst, but it's not... And. If it's two, it's worse? But if we don't, then it's everybody? And we've still got. Aliens.

[there's a bit of a pause before he deadpans:]

What's the percentage on that one now, anyway.

Are you asking for their names and skills?

[Grell is quieter than usual, her hands folded on the table and her eyes staring only at the board. she has to do this, so she can get through the discussion instead of running away to isolate herself somewhere.]

A physical description might serve us as well.

WEEK 11

MOTIVE...?

Alice

ACTUAL MOTIVE

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A little after the motive announcement, conference room

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the most important tag ill ever write

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